Saturday, December 30, 2006

James Petras has another good article (or here or here) on the pernicious influence of the Israel Lobby (see also here and here). The Israel Lobby – now known generally as ‘the Lobby’ due to its unique and overwhelming power in American politics – forces the United States towards war, eliminates the possibility of real political debate on large areas of policy, and requires American politicians to take foreign policy positions that are obviously against the best interests of the United States. The Lobby is directly responsible for:

immoral and illegal wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia (new!), and Palestine (with American taxpayers footing the bill, a bill they can’t afford, for most of these);

the threat of violence and wars against all the peoples of the Middle East (with the distinct possibility of a world-wide economic apocalypse, a possibility that doesn’t bother the Lobby in the least);

the destruction of the mechanics of the American political system, where all candidates of both parties are selected solely on the basis of their adherence to Lobby policies (this was make clear in the last set of elections, where Rahm Emanuel hand-selected candidates who would be pro-war, although the American people clearly wanted to be able to select anti-war candidates);

the destructive ‘war on terror’ and ‘Islamofascist’ memes, which have cause immense suffering throughout the world, and have completely subverted traditional protections afforded by the American legal system;

attacks on free speech, especially on free speech on the internet, all on the basis that such speech might be used to take positions contrary to those espoused by the Lobby and the Israeli extreme right (such positions are called ‘anti-Semitic’);

attacks on freedom of assembly (egregious examplefrom the Lobby branch in Canada);

the promotion of the use of torture and targeted assassination (no matter what you think of other lobbies, including the infamous tobacco lobby, none of them advocates torture, violence, hatred and war as a direct part of lobbying efforts);

the weakening and perversion of international law (especially the removal of protections for civilians and national sovereignty), and the undermining of international organizations, such as the United Nations, that dare take any positions contrary to those of Israeli colonialism.

It is common for Lobby apologists to claim that we are ‘picking on’ Israel, singling out this tiny country all because we are really anti-Semites. How can anyone make this argument in the face of the immense damage caused by the lobbying group working for the interests of the Israeli right? The Lobby is uniquely dangerous, and must be stopped.